High density wire harnesses provide the primary interconnect system for modern computer-based electronic systems. Such complex harnesses are extremely difficult to fabricate, and manufacturers are increasingly interested in the potential for robotic systems to decrease cost and increase reliability of this assembly process. It is the present practice that harnesses are manually constructed using various wire insertion hand tools to aid the worker. These hand tools hold the small contact at the end of the wire to ensure that the contact seats and the contact shoulder engages the tines that lock the contact into the connector. The contact is pushed in until the worker feels the contact bottom out in the connector. After one end of the wire is in place, and the insertion is tested by pulling, the wire is then routed through various types of standoffs in a formboard. Finally, the remaining end of the wire is inserted into a second connector. This is an obviously time consuming and tedious process, prone to many errors since the harnesses are made in small batches and contain hundreds of wires. The present process of manual construction of high density wire harnesses leads to a large amount of rework.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for the automated construction of high density wire harnesses.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a pneumatic system for transporting wires from preparation to assembly areas.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a robot hand which permits the bidirectional insertion as well as wire control while routing the wire along the formboard. As a result, no tool changing is required for different wires, pins or connectors.
It is still another object of this invention to provide force sensing and control techniques for verification, error detection, and error recovery.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a wire tension sensing technique for loading the second end of the bidirectional robot hand.